News Corp, the international media company that owns Star TV, has been given permission to beam Xingkong Weishi, its Mandarin language entertainment channel to all hotels above three stars and into residential compounds where foreigners and overseas Chinese live, industry sources said on Tuesday.
Star TV was the first foreign television company to win the rights to broadcast into China. News Corp has said it plans to invest well over $100m in the channel over the next three to four years.
The channel is currently restricted to South China's Guangdong province, where its satellite signals are piped by a local cable TV company to about 1 million viewers. It will now be able to reach about 500,000 hotel rooms as well as foreign communities.
Phoenix Television, the Hong Kong-listed broadcaster which is 37.6 percent owned by News Corp, said on Monday it had been given permission to air its 24-hour Mandarin news programme in three-star hotels and selected foreign compounds.
(Edited by china.org.cn January 8, 2003)
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